The $750 million community credit union will build a full-service branch in Rainer in Columbia County, one of three counties for which it received NCUA approval to serve in 2012 under a rural designation.

The other two counties, Clatsop in Oregon and Wahkiakum in Washington, constitute a rural area with a population of less than 200,000, part of the criteria that helps define the regulator’s rural designation, according to Angie Leppert, Fibre FCU’s vice president of marketing.

This year NCUA approved expanding the rural designation to include Pacific County in Washington, Leppert added

“A lot of people were traveling significant distances to use our services,” Leppert said. “We’re excited to be able to offer our first Oregon branch, as well as serve a new county.”

The new branch will have the same footprint as the credit union’s other branches, offering an ATM, drive-up lanes and a full slate of financial services.

Fibre FCU, founded in 1937 to serve members of the Longview Fibre Co., became a community-based credit union in the 1970s. NCUA’s rural designation approval in 2012 enabled the credit union to make its first forays into Oregon.